British actress Keira Knightley has felt limited in her choice of roles after her breakthrough role in Hollywood blockbuster Pirates of the Caribbean. “I had no idea how to put it. It felt a lot like I was locked into something I didn’t understand,” the 37-year-old told Harper’s Bazaar UK magazine. “I felt very constrained, I felt stuck, so the roles after that were about trying to break out of that.”
In the Pirate films, Knightley starred opposite Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom as Elizabeth Swann, who undergoes a transformation from nobleman’s daughter to pirate bride. “(Elizabeth) was the object of everyone’s lust,” Knightley said. “Not that she doesn’t have a lot of fighting spirit in her, but it was interesting to be perceived as the opposite despite a tomboyish character.”
The first “Caribbean” film in 2003 made the actress, who had previously attracted attention with “Kick It Like Beckham”, suddenly famous. Knightley said she was never comfortable with fame and had a “hard landing.” “I was incredibly hard on myself, I was never good enough, I was totally single-minded, I was incredibly ambitious, I was so driven.” The fact that she was always trying to get better was very exhausting. “And it’s only because I’m not like that anymore that I realize how extraordinary it was.”
